36 teams battled it out on the Ouse (between Scarborough Railway Bridge and Lendal Bridge) for the Challenge Trophy and other prestigious awards, including awards for the fastest Charity Team, fastest Armed Services Team, and of course the "Best Dressed Team" trophy.

The York Dragon Boat Challenge has been held annually since 2003 and during that time has raised over £930,000 for a whole host of worthwhile charities.

The Rotary Club of York's 2016 nominated charities were Family Fund York, and The Island York.

Family Fund is the UK’s largest grant giving charity for families raising disabled or seriously ill children, helping 72,043 families over the last year, with over £33million awarded in grants and services across the UK. Family Fund believes all families raising disabled and seriously ill children should have the same opportunities as others, looking in particular at the most vulnerable and those on low incomes.

Whilst our regular funding enables us to bring practical and essential help that is often a lifeline to a family raising a disabled child or young person, it does not enable us to support siblings of disabled children.

Hence our Siblings Matter Too grant programme, that acknowledges the unique role that siblings play as part of a family, raising a child with a disability or serious illness. In many of the families we support, siblings act as carers by helping to look after their disabled brother or sister, but as a result the siblings through no fault of the family, go without. The Siblings Matter Too programme provides grants to siblings for such items as computers, clothing, games or books, which have a huge impact on the sibling being recognised as an individual. Rotary’s support will enable us to do much more under this important Siblings Matter Too programme.

The Island is a registered charity, which provides a mentoring service to vulnerable and disabled children and young people aged 8 to 18 in York.

The Island links the children and young people with fully-trained volunteer mentors, who, by means of weekly activity sessions, offer one-to-one support outside of school and the family home for a full year. This consistent space and time offered to the children and young people on a weekly basis helps them to address problems and to work through other difficulties. For children who face adversity in their lives (such as family breakdown or disability), growing up can be especially tough. This can increase their risk of marginalisation within their communities. Having someone who will meet with them regularly, build a relationship, have fun and provide help with making positive choices can have a life-long influence.

The Island is dependent on donations, legacies and fundraising events for selecting, training and supervising volunteer mentors, so as to continue this unique work in York, which since The Island’s formation in 2007 has mentored over 300 children and young people.